“The law was added till Faith Comes”. (Galatians 3.19)
The law was NOT part of God’s original plan so you should not be surprised that it is NOT part of the conclusion or the culmination either. That the law was created to be a containment center for servants and a learning center for those who would become heirs of faith as spelled out in Galatians chapter 4, However it was not part of the original plan. We had to be redeemed from the law.
Paul said he did not know sin except by The law. The law came and worked all manner of desire in him and slew him. For carnal man, the law kills and therefore is called “The gospel of death written and engraved on stones” 2 Corinthians 3. This is why the law was added. “To make sin exceedingly sinful”, to make us good and dead to the flesh.
So when does this temporary fix called the law and prophets end? With Christ. Galatians 4.4 But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born[a] of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, “.
And this already happened thereby rendering the law with all its buildings, articles, feasts, offices and city called Jerusalem on earth are now unnecessary. They were all dependent upon each other as a nation that displayed shadows and images in contrasts of the invisible things of God. Even as we now have, “Heavenly Jerusalem comes down of God from Heaven” being the Kingdom from before the foundations of the world.” But manifest to us through Christ who makes us one body in His Jerusalem. The law was added till faith comes bearing a counter resemblance as were all the artifacts expired with that Old Covenant. Faith came and all the law and prophets were till Christ. They are now fulfilled and expired as old times memories. One kingdom expired for another and now “the Kingdom of God is at hand”.
Because of this we have the New Covenant which is written and engraved not on tablets stones but on our hearts “founded on better promises”. That is why we are called God’s living stones. As Peter said “we are living stones assembled together for a habitation of God in the (Holy) Spirit” to describe our invisible cloak. We exchange the visible for the invisible. As Paul put it, we are “planted corruptible, raised incorruptible”e. Planted a physical thing, raised a spiritual one. “Each one in their own order of existence and not at some second coming or a culmination called the end of days.
So then the question is asked “Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.” Yes it is settled. It is the foundation we are built up on. A starting point gifted to us by faith to stand on “for Those who are least in the Kingdom are greater than the prophets.” This is why the apostles are described as the foundation to the Kingdom of God and the gates are the names of the prophets. But the over-comers are pillars in the house of God as those who uphold these truths long after the foundations were laid and the gates were set up to be called “The Kingdom of God at hand” as are we. The apostles and prophets are the substructure that supports us and we are the “living stones built up a habitation of God in the Spirit, with Christ the cornerstone.” The stone the old covenant rejected because they wanted a physical one like the second coming seekers do too. But those who are borne of the Holy Spirit disregard the physical as teaching tools only.
The time you are looking for is NOW! Now is the time, today is the day of salvation”, when you shall NOT seek God in Jerusalem but in spirit and truth” where all the originals are intact and in place waiting for full occupancy. We are the living stones built together for God to habitat with us in the spirit. This is something that never becomes visible to the carnal eye. But totally available in this way we prescribe.
We are (Hebrews 12.22) of “the spirits of just men made perfect”. How? By faith. From faith to faith. We who have begun in The spirit perfect nothing in a carnal way. Flesh and blood does not inherit the Kingdom but the renewed in the spirit of the mind of faith does expediently.
So no kingdom on earth can represent God or correctly portray His invisible city called “Heavenly Jerusalem come down of God from Heaven built upon the acts of the apostles” made up of composition uniquely suitable for the invisible God. These things we talk about are the building blocks of invisible things in the spirit, for those who are born of the spirit. For “He is the God who gives life to the dead and calls the things that are not as though they are” because they are right now. Gods Kingdom just is, believe it or not.
In Hebrews 9 it says that “The Holy Spirit indicating that the way into the holiest not available while the first temple was standing’. And if you still need a physical building in your thinking, it is because you have the mindset that needs physical objects to qualify as truth or real. But the whole Old Covenant with all its persons buildings and features needed to expire so as to not compete with its replacement. So goes every concept of The Law and the Prophets. You have to trade in the old for the new. The old become as expired as a body in a casket, and why we are to be “sown corruptible, raised incorruptible in understanding only. That is why the Old Testament Synagogue was ripped top to bottom so that even the ground quaked, because the rebuilding of it would be blasphemy Mt 27.52?
Having an expectation of re-establishing the old is also the same veil of the gospel of death spoken by Paul. “For even today the veil lies over the heart for the veil is done away”, in Christ. Fulfilled in Christ. Yes the linear message had an end as all things associated with time and matter expire to reach this point.
And the good and evil and the cursing and the blessing is displayed in the contrast of the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. The Covenant that genders death, verses the Covenant that generates life. The law brings about a consciousness of sin for without that consciousness first, you would not understand righteousness. The righteousness of faith. That “what is required of us is done by God.” To mean that we can’t keep the law anyway.
The law, Jerusalem and all The earthen articles were given as a contrast of things in the spirit. The spirit is Gods construct. The law brings about the curse but faith brings life. They are contrasts of each other. Old covenant and new. Old wine, new wine.
The scripture differentiates between the message from Abraham and the message from Moses, and Christ came to renew the law of faith associated with Abraham
So it was of the people called the Jews in the time of Christ who were in possession of the laws, feasts and ordinances of the old covenant that expired because of the weakness of the flesh.
The demise of the law and the prophets was so huge in fact that Jesus Christ said that “the blood of all the prophets from Abel to Zachariah shall be required of the Jewish culture. Why would God want to rebuild that worthless covenant. After all how many righteous did it produce? None!no not one. (Romans 3) By the deeds of the law their were none pleasing to God, No not One! Hence the retirement of the old, and the instigation of the new. There are no other covenants and the old and the New do not over lap. Which one are you in? The gospel of death or life? Wasn’t the Jerusalem of that day the spiritual city called Sodom? (Revelation 11.8)
If in the Jerusalem of that day “was laid the judgment of all the prophets from Able to Zachariah who was slain between the porch and the altar” because the prophets couldn’t get them past the sin to accept salvation from God. They lived in guilt and condemnation as evidenced by the never ending rituals about sin, for they sought it not by faith but fact.
What then are we waiting for to believe? A rebuilding the old and wait for a second coming? Sounds like what the Jews were looking for. A man called Messiah to crown king.
He is already King of kings and Lord of lords” whether we see it or not. He defeated His enemies at the cross. Many just haven’t accepted it in themselves yet. The only enemies left are your doubts and fears and vain repetitions about sin. Christ neutralizes the real ones at the cross. That is why “those that the Son sets free are truly free!”
The Kingdom of God is at hand and operational in our generation. “The lines have gone out to the ends of the earth.” Of the Jerusalem of today? Don’t be distracted by that. For nothing avails anything but the new creation, Heavenly Jerusalem the Mother of us all. (Galatians 4-6) And “Heavenly Jerusalem come down of God from Heaven (Hebrews 12.22) The old gives no positive dividends just judgments.
The Kingdom of God is at hand because it’s predecessor has been fulfilled